Purll Up and DieKelly Flynn is a C.P.A., so her day starts off with firing up her laptop in her cottage “home office” across from the Lambspun knitting and fiber shop in Fort Connor, Colorado. Having been a C.P.A. myself years ago, I know that numbers and accounts dominate Kelly’s professional world. Balancing accounts is actually a satisfying experience, believe it or not. And the nice thing about Accounting is when the accounts do not balance, there’s always a reason. And often it’s easy to find, as opposed to the Real World. Someone with an analytical mind like Kelly can always find the reason. It may take a while, but “numbers” will make sense. Unlike people.

In the past twelve Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries, Kelly has solved many different mysteries and in the process—-discovered who the real murderer was in each case. In mystery fiction, the police usually are concentrating their investigation on someone else. And that provides an additional challenge to someone as naturally analytical as Kelly. We mystery authors make sure our Sleuths uncover new information that the professional investigators have either overlooked or didn’t know about.

That’s one of the fun things about writing murder mysteries: planting clues. Readers want to try and solve the mysteries before the Sleuth does, so I usually plant at least fifteen clues for each Kelly Flynn mystery. I’ve also used many and varied ways of . . . ahem. . . killing people. 🙂 Actually, it’s a lot of fun. Let’s see—-the last twelve victims have been strangled, killed by a blow to the head with a very heavy blunt object, killed by drinking a sugary latte laced with an overdose of sleeping pills, hit with a shovel to the side of the head which causes massive bleeding in the brain and a speedy death if not treated, shot someone, run someone down with a car and left them to die in the dark and deserted city street, caused someone to fall over a balcony at a house in the mountains where they fell to their death, another poisoning with—-yes, folks, one of those sugary, super sweet latte coffees. Those things are so sweet, they make my teeth hurt. I swear, you could put rat poison in them and the victim would never notice. (heh heh heh) Kind of makes you hesitate to order another of those coffees, doesn’t it? Do you have any enemies?

Let’s see—-where was I in my litany of murder—-oh, yes, after the 2nd sugary coffee death (where the killer used sleeping pills), there was a good old-fashioned shooting. Killer put gun up to victim’s head and shot them. In last year’s 12th Kelly Flynn mystery, the killer slit the victim’s throat. Messy, but effective. And, Dear Readers, you will just have to wait and see how the victim is killed in the next Kelly Flynn, #13, Purl Up and Die. It will be available in bookstores and online June 2nd. I hope you give it a try. 🙂


You can read more about Kelly in Purl Up and Die, the 13th book in the “Kelly Flynn” mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime. The first book in the series is Knit One, Kill Two.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 12 a.m. eastern on June 15 for the chance to win a copy of Purl Up and Die. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be notified within 48 hours after giveaway closes and you will have three days to respond after being contacted or another winner will be selected. Make sure to check your SPAM folder.

About the author
Maggie Sefton is the New York Times bestselling author of Knitting Mystery series (Berkeley Prime Crime). Her debut knitting mystery, Knit One, Kill Two, was named an Agatha Award finalist in 2005. Maggie also writes the Molly Malone Suspense Mysteries. Sefton was born in Richmond, Va., and grew up in Arlington, Va. She is a former certified public accountant, and now resides in Fort Collins, Colo. Visit the author online at MaggieSefton.com.